Hi Guest:
Welcome to TRIBE, Toronto's largest and longest running online community. If you'd like to post here, or reply to existing posts on TRIBE, you first have to register on the forum. You can register with your facebook ID or with an email address. Join us!

A book-length source that would be good I think would be What's the Matter with Kansas, it does a real good job detailing the rise of the Moral Majority in the 80s: the direct mail campaigns, the door to door knocking, the personalities involved (Norquist et al)

might be a good place to ground the tea party historically, to describe the right-wing ecosystem in America from Reagan til now.

From what I've got what is now being called 'the tea party movement' is only really a year old and can be traced back to CNBC's Rick Santelli who called for a Chicago Tea Party in July (2009) to the aplause of many on the trading floor.

The clip I found was dated Feb. 2009 but the actual recording might be a bit older.

His ire is at federal bailouts.

Some choice lines:

How many of you people want to pay for your neibours mortgage...

(response) How about we all stop paying our mortage?

... Support people who can carry the water and not just those who drink the water.

Oh, I've also been looking into the march that really seemed to bring the group into prominence.

The march was on 9/12 in DC (2009) after having events at 30 US cities.

The participants seem scared, really scared, but all of the things they are angry about don't make sense. It seems clear that the fear comes from ignorance and that the tea party is just a result of people being 'mad as hell'.

One of the reporters who was covering the march even mentioned how there were 'brown shirts' in attendance, I'm not sure if she knew what that implies...